Each year, the second week in October marks the National Fire Protection Association’s Fire Prevention Week. This year, the campaign is, “Fire won’t wait. Plan your escape,” highlighting important steps every home and multi-housing property should take to protect people from the risk of injury due to fire. This week’s campaign marks the 100th anniversary of Fire Prevention Week!
History of Fire Prevention Week
Since 1922, NFPA has sponsored Fire Prevention Week. Fire Prevention Week always falls on the week of October 9, in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire which started on October 8, 1871.
In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge declared Fire Prevention Week a national observance, which makes it the longest running public health observance in the United States. This week signifies a time for firefighters to provide lifesaving education to families, businesses, adults, children – truly everyone who will listen in an attempt to decrease casualties caused by fires.
Importance of Fire Planning
If a fire occurs, there are mere seconds separating you from escape and catastrophe. That’s why it is imperative that each person understands how to exit the building quickly and safely. If you own or manage apartment buildings, make sure that all fire exits are clearly marked and that every resident knows where to go in the event of a fire.
Fire Prevention for Multi-Housing Properties
As always, prevention is the best option when it comes to fires. If you can prevent a fire from happening, you can eliminate the need for escape. One way Building Maintenance Management helps prevent fires in multi-housing communities is with dryer vent cleaning. Did you know that clothes dryers account for nearly 14,000 home structure fires per year? Of these, nearly one-third were caused by a failure to clean the dryer vents. Fires easily start from lint build-up. If your dryer vents have not been cleaned this year, give us a call and do your part to prevent this type of fire!
Another important way to prevent casualties from fires is to ensure your fire safety systems have been inspected and are in working order, e.g. smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, alarms and sprinkler systems. In the event of a fire, you want your residents to be alerted as soon as possible, so they can safely escape. You also want fire safety equipment ready and working to help control the fire and keep it from spreading too quickly.
We hope you will take steps this Fire Prevention Week to keep your buildings and residents as safe as possible from fire. If you would like to schedule dryer vent cleaning or other commercial maintenance, please give BMM a call at 763-541-4886 or contact us.
